Title: Kingdom for a Kiss
Disclaimer: We have no affiliations with Warner Bros. Television Production, One Tree Hill or Tollin/Robbins Productions.
Summary: Nine years ago, Brooke Davis left Tree Hill. Now she's come back to raise her daughter in her childhood home. There's only one person who has been there for her all along, but what will it take for her to realize he's all the home she needs?
Author's Note: This fanfiction is a joint effort between myself [Summer, Indian Summer] and Joan [bibleboymary4ever]. Reviews are greatly appreciated, and will help the second chapter come faster! This fanfiction will be centered around the relationships between Lucas Scott, Brooke Davis and Nathan Scott. The character Elissa Natalie Scott is all ours.

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She'd told her eight year old daughter they were going home, to where Mommy had grown up. But as Brooke Davis led Elissa to Baggage Claim, she realized how false the statement had been. Tree Hill wasn't home to her, not anymore.

"Mom," Elissa called, grabbing Brooke's hand. "Look!"

Brooke scanned the crowd as Elissa pulled her to the right and her eyes locked with a blue pair. Nathan Scott. A smile spread across her face as Elissa broke away from her and ran to Nathan, encircling her arms around his waist.

She started to walk over as he picked Elissa up into a bear hug. "Nathan," she greeted, giving him a friendly hug. "Thanks for coming."

He gave her an easy smile and gestured to four suitcases on the ground next to him. "I already got your luggage for you. But come on, Brooke. Four suitcases?"

"Thanks," Brooke responded, pulling up the handle on one of the suitcases.

"There's more coming," Elissa chimed in. "Did you think we could really fit everything we own into four suitcases?"

Nathan laughed, kissing Elissa's forehead. "You're getting to be more and more like your mom everyday, you know that?"

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Brooke set her suitcase down on the stoop, taking the key out of the white envelope she had gotten it in. She turned the key into the lock and pushed open the oversized white door. A familiar scent wafted through the air, and she recognized it immediately as her mother's perfume, Chanel Number Five. She bit her lip as she lifted the suitcase up and hoisted it into the foyer.

Elissa gazed curiously around the entranceway. "So this is where you grew up?"

"Yeah," Brooke replied uneasily.

Nathan tried to brighten the mood, "Hey, remember how much fun we had here when we were kids?"

She nodded in response. "We had some crazy parties." She glanced towards Elissa, who was now wandering around and peeking her head into the dining and living rooms.

"You set me up with Peyton at your 13th birthday party right over there." He gestured towards the couch in the living room.

Brooke groaned, "Look how that turned out. I swear, it was the last time I ever set anyone up."

Nathan shrugged, "Nah. You set Haley and I up."

Brooke was about to respond when a buxom Hispanic woman walked in. "Miss Brooke?"

"Oh my god! Rosa! You're, like, still here!" Brooke was genuinely surprised to see her old maid and confidante still working at the house.

"Si, senorita, Xavier and I are living in the guest house with Talia and Margaret. He still do all the gardening and Talia still clean. Margaret started working for your mother about three years ago, she is a cook."

Brooke hadn't gotten over the initial shock that most everything had stayed the same. Well, except one teeny thing. She paused apprehensively. "Rosa—before my Mom, uh, died…did she mention Elissa or me?"

Rosa looked upset. "She was very sad after you leave. She love you very much."

"Oh." Brooke hadn't really regretted leaving her mother until she had died, and Brooke realized that she would never get an apology.

"Excuse me, Miss Brooke. I need to finish the bathroom." Rosa gestured toward a door before she scurried off.

Brooke turned back towards Nathan. "So, can you stay for a bit? Talk?"

He pushed the sleeve of his shirt up as he checked the time on his wristwatch. "Yup, Haley doesn't expect me home for another twenty minutes."

Brooke walked toward the couch and Nathan sat down beside her.

"Kay. So how's everything going?"

"I'm good. Haley's good."

"Did you try the whole therapy thing like I suggested?"

He scratched the back of his neck. "Uh, you know how she is. We went to a few sessions but…" His voice trailed off and she couldn't help but notice how lost he looked, like the little boy she had once known.

"Okay…"

"Yeah, whatever." Nathan tried to shrug it off.

"How's work?"

"It's good. You'll never guess who I just signed a five year contract with!"

"Who?"

"Lancome Cosmetics."

"Nate!" She squealed, "That's great!"

"Yeah," he nodded. "Oh, so I got you a job working on their print ads. I know it's a little different than what you were doing for me in London, but you'll catch on quickly."

"Okay. Thanks soooo much, you know I owe you majorly."

"Yeah, you do." Nathan grinned.

Brooke glanced towards the clock on the wall. "It's 3:50; you should probably get home or Haley will worry."

"You're right. Sorry, Brooke. Tell Liss I said bye, kay?"

"Kay. Bye." He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and left, firmly shutting the door behind him.
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Nathan returned to his modest two story home in a much better mood than he'd been in the last few weeks. "Hales, I'm home," he called, kicking off his shoes.

He heard a muffled reply from their room and headed up the stairs. "I had to go to the office," he said as he reached the room, cracking the door open. "I'm sorry I didn't call. I was-" He stopped as he saw her kneeling by the bed with a shoebox in her hands. "What are you doing?"

She looked toward him slowly, a pained expression on her face. "Who is this?" she asked, taking a picture from the box and holding it up for him to see.

Nathan froze. "Where did you find those?"

"I was looking for an old dress, and I found them in the back corner of the closet."

Nathan took the picture from her and placed it back in the box. "You weren't supposed to see these," he said quietly, closing the box.

"Who is she, Nathan? Why were you hiding them from me?"

He wasn't sure how to respond. The shoebox was full of all the letters and pictures Brooke had sent and Elissa's drawings. He'd never expected Haley to find them. "It's not like that, Haley. I wasn't hiding them."

"Is she your daughter?" A single tear slipped down Haley's cheek and she wiped it away quickly.

Nathan sighed. "Hales…"

"This copy of her birth certificate, Nathan. She'd be eight years old. Has our whole marriage been a lie? Have you been running off to your other family every time you tell me you're going away on business? Is that what this is about?"

"Haley, I swear this isn't what it looks like…"

Haley's gaze hardened and she crossed her arms over her chest. "Then tell me what it looks like, Nathan. Because to me, it seems like you've been keeping in very close contact with Brooke Davis. And your daughter."

"Haley…"

Haley shook her head, no longer trying to hold back her tears. "Every time I apologized to you, Nathan, and told you I was sorry I couldn't give you kids. All of those times you just sat there, knowing you already had one!"

He wished she'd yell or hit him or do anything other than this. "Haley, this isn't-"

"Get out of my house, Nathan. Get out now!"

Nathan bowed his head and left the room as Haley's lip quivered and she sank onto the bed. No one could say they hadn't tried.
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Nathan pressed down on the doorbell, listening as the sound rang throughout the house. Rosa opened the door, smiling at him. He opened his mouth to thank her as Brooke bounded down the stairs.

"Hey Christopher Robin! Back so soon? What, you couldn't get enough of the fabulous Davis family?" She was grinning, and he was struck by how carefree she looked. She had changed into black sweatpants and a pink tank top, and her hair was loosely pulled back into a ponytail. Brooke looked more like the 24 year old she was than the mother of an eight year old.

Nathan swayed in his position in front of the door. "Well, yeah, Pooh. Just had to make sure you hadn't ran back off to London." He was joking, but Brooke could sense a tone of sadness in his voice, and she knew something was up.

She cocked one eyebrow up into the air. "Seriously, Nate, what's up?"

"Uh…Haley just kicked me out." Nathan couldn't believe it had actually happened. They had always fought but they tried so hard to salvage their marriage. He had truly believed that they could live happily ever after. Maybe he was wrong.

"Oh my god! What happened? It's only been like half an hour."

"She found my Liss box." He reflected on how stupid it had been of him to hide all of those treasures in plain view. Maybe he should have gotten a safe at the bank.

"Aw, you have a box for Elissa?"

"Yeah, it had all the letters you sent me...the scrapbook with all her pictures…the drawings and she made me…"

Brooke bit her lip, suddenly feeling very guilty. "So, it's basically my fault that you're homeless?"

"No! You know Elissa needs me. I need you both just as much." He paused. "Haley didn't even give me a chance to explain the truth. She just wanted to wallow in the fact that I had a secret. But you know what? It's not my secret. It's yours." He shook his head. "No, Brooke, you didn't do anything wrong. All you've done is loved your kid."

She gave him a weak smile, as her eyes welled up. "I don't know, Natie. I think moving back here was a huge mistake. My Dad's in London, Elissa's friends, her school…our lives aren't in Tree Hill anymore. We haven't even been here an hour and already our presence is causing problems!" She tried to laugh, but the situation was all too serious.

"Your Mom wanted you to come back."

Brooke rolled her eyes. "She's dead. Besides, she's had nine years to forgive me. She wanted me to have an abortion! She wanted to kill Elissa! No one can hurt my baby girl. No one." Nathan knew this was a sore subject. Brooke had had a rocky childhood, and she desperately wanted her daughter's to be different. "But, whatever, right? What's done is done. It's all in the past now." She blinked away the tears, hoping her mascara wouldn't run.

She tried to calm down and speak rationally. "You can stay here, with us. There's plenty of guest rooms, it would be stupid not to use one."

Nathan smiled in return, and she felt her heart ache. "Thanks."

Brooke tried to shrug it off. "It's no big deal." But it was.

Brooke could no longer stop the tears as they started to stream down her face. She gave him a tight smile as black streaks of mascara spilled onto her cheeks. Nathan leaned over and gave her a tight hug, not caring that her tears and makeup were staining his cashmere sweater. Brooke was a mess when she was upset, but Nathan didn't mind. She was always beautiful to him.
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Whenever something had gone wrong in her life, Haley had always turned to Lucas. So after Nathan left, Haley had immediately called Lucas and crying, had asked him to come over. He'd arrived within ten minutes.

Now, sitting at her dining room table with Lucas, Haley wasn't sure if she'd done the right thing. Was it fair to drag Lucas into this? Brooke had been his girlfriend.

"Haley, what happened? You know you can tell me." His voice was gentle and his eyes prodding.

"I don't know, Lucas. I'm going to file for divorce."

Lucas didn't try to contest this. He just looked at her with a silent understanding. "What happened?"

Haley shook her head angrily, thinking of what she'd felt when she found the box. "Our whole marriage was a lie, Lucas." She ran a tissue under her eyes, sopping up her tears before she looked back at him. "He has a kid."

Lucas' eyes widened. "Haley, are you sure? Maybe you just misunderstood."

Haley smiled sadly. "There's nothing to misunderstand, Lucas. I asked him and he couldn't even deny it. She's eight years old. Which means she would've been conceived around the time we got married."

"Wow." Lucas scratched the top of his head, clearly surprised. "Where is she? Whose is she?"

"Her name's Elissa Natalie. She lives in London with her mom. I found a bunch of letters and stuff. He visits them, Lucas."

"God, Haley."

"There's more, Lucas." She paused, looking him straight in the eyes. "Her mother is Brooke Davis."